Too old, but in the spirit
by HofYecats
Summary: Just some fluff in time for the holidays! the team decides to celebrate Halloween in a rather unconventional way. The result of a few too many pieces of expired candy. rated T for language. Enjoy!


**A/N: Yeah, I know I'm kind of late (Oooh, it's 11:35, I'm **_**really**_** late!) but I only thought about writing this earlier today, and just haven't really gotten down to actually doing it. This is just supposed to be some Halloween fluff, just in time for Halloween, see? Not really supposed to be taken as a serious plot or anything, but I still love reviews. Anyways, Enjoy!**

**PS- If you do leave a review, tell me at what point you figured out who the main character of the story was. Some of you'll get it fast; I intended it like that. But if you don't, tell me about it, because I want to know if I'm doing okay with my dropping hints. Thanks! Sincerely Stacey**

* * *

_Ding-dong,_ sounds the doorbell, echoing loudly throughout the empty apartment.

"Oh fuck" she thinks, for the umpteenth time that night "not again"

She presses the mute button on her remote and shuts off the lights, waiting in the darkness for the trick or treaters to go away. But they're having none of it; banging on the door with their palms and yelling through the keyhole, asking her to come out and give them some candy.

They know she's home; she knows they know it, and she doesn't know how, but they know she's home and she's pretending not to be there.

She closes her eyes and rubs her temples, sighing heavily as she turns up the volume again. There's no point in pretending, so she thinks she'll wait them out. After all they can't stay there all night she reasons with herself.

Almost uncontrollably, she flashes back to her own childhood, when she lived with her mother and she was reluctantly learning to be a little lady. She was ten, standing all alone outside a costume shop with a badly disguised look of longing on her face and sighing heavily as her mother's words echoed in her head: _No self respecting individual dresses up in an asinine get up and walks around town begging for candy. _Her mother had walked up behind her with a look of disgust and had grabbed her arm a little harder than necessary, dragging her away from yet another childhood event that she would never get a chance to experience.

"Go away," She yells, not bothering to get up, "I don't do Halloween"

But still the trick or treaters persist, banging on the door and ringing the bell.

"Fuck it" she mutters, finally deciding to get up. She knows if she doesn't do something in the next twenty seconds, she's going to be scrubbing dried up egg off her door for the next week.

She yanks open the door, ready to give her "Halloween is a pagan festival" speech again, but instead she is greeted by a blonde member of the BAU wearing a set of nylon butterfly wigs and a tall dark male wearing plastic 'bling'. They smile at her, holding out something that looks like an imitation fire helmet and wave a plastic bag in her face.

"Trick or treat!" beams Garcia, stuffing the helmet on her head, while Morgan holds out his plastic grocery bag to reveal not candy, but a plastic axe and fire extinguisher.

She looks at the two of them, the brightly dressed fairy/butterfly princess, and the cliché' NYC gansta and decides she is sick of the Halloween spirit.

"No" she says simply, making to shut the door.

But the two of them have already anticipated this movement, as the swinging door meets a foot on its way to the door frame. Morgan pretends the contact with the door doesn't hurt as he pushes his way into the apartment and smiles determinedly at her.

"We're having a party. A sort of, too old but in the Halloween spirit party, and there'll be drinks. We'll all be in costume and you're coming"

The last part was said as a statement, not a question and she knew there was no arguing. But that didn't mean she wasn't going to try.

"No. Look, I appreciate the gesture, but I don't celebrate Halloween. I'm not going. And I'm certainly not wearing this" she says, gently taking the hat off her head. But Garcia's having none of it as she grabs the hat in her own two hands, and places it back on her head.

"You're coming, and that's final and you'll love it, Miss Halloween Grinch" she grins, grabbing her hand and leading her out the door, "We're getting Hotch to wear a set of furry playboy bunny ears"

"How on earth did you get him to agree to that?" she asks, finally allowing herself a smile.

"We didn't. Not yet"

* * *

She finds it ironic that Halloween is supposed to be about community; about giving and receiving, about sharing, about childish disobedience, celebrating the care-freeness of youth. She finds it ironic that it's supposed to be about kids getting free stuff while they still can, about relishing in the blissful ungratefulness one felt at receiving a box of raisins, and here they were, wearing masks and scaring the crap out of trick or treating kids.

If you couldn't join 'em, beat 'em. And if you couldn't do that either, then you could scare the hell out of them apparently.

It was Morgan's idea initially. Their "too old but still in the Halloween spirit" party had consisted of sitting in a dingy old bar, eating cold pizza and reminiscing about past Halloweens spent trick or treating, throwing eggs, flinging toilet paper and running from Satan, the neighbor's dog. When Emily had commented on this rather obvious _Friends_ reference, Morgan had stated that one of the writers had actually stolen this joke from him; apparently, the old lady on the same block as him had actually had a poodle named Satan. Go figure.

Hotchner, who, after a long period spent persuading him that no one would take any pictures, and had finally decided to wear the rather suggestive pink bunny ears, brought up the story of the time he had dressed in full zombie garb and had walked around his high school scaring the daylights out of teachers for the fun of it. When several members of the BAU remarked on the authenticity of the story, Hotchner backed it up by saying that he hadn't even wanted to be an FBI agent back then. His profession of choice had been a mattress tester.

It was here that Morgan had gotten the idea, to walk across the street to the dollar store, purchase a few cheap monster masks and drag the rest of the team to a local park where there would no doubt be countless hormonal teenagers relishing in the lightheartedness of Halloween. It was here that Morgan had, somehow, managed to persuade the rest of the team to crouch in the bushes wearing the latex masks, waiting for helpless victims to walk by and have the living daylights scared out of them.

Emily finds it completely ironic that they're doing is the exact opposite of what their jobs stand for, but at the same time she can't really bring herself to object to what they're doing. She feels more alive than she's felt in a very long time; it's the kind of feeling she's been deprived of as a child and she's not about to cut it short for some thoughtless jab of conscience that reminds her it's not very nice to scare people on Halloween. Or ever.

She holds back a giggle as JJ, beside her, points out an awkwardly posed Reid, behind a tree, his skinny as hell frame almost hidden behind a tree trunk. Not quite hidden, but almost. A few paces to the left of him hides a well concealed Hotch, who, to the untrained eye resembles nothing more than on oversized gym bag beneath a park bench. _On_ the park bench, sits David Rossi, a newspaper held by his own two hands covering his head where a mask fits uncomfortably. To the right of them lies Morgan, deftly hidden behind a bush with no leaves. And last but not least, sits Garcia, cross legged on a low tree branch. She is the most visible, but then again she's the least other worldly looking.

She lures the victims in.

There's a sound of footsteps and loud voices and Emily nudges JJ to shush her. A group of unsuspecting adolescents appear on the path, probably coming home from a school dance. There are three of them, maybe four, Emily's not sure, but she's ready to send them running in the opposite direction. They notice Garcia posed carefully watching them as they cross in front of her. She says nothing but stares them down as they stop to look at her. There's a moment when they're not sure what to do, if they should keep going or call out to her. It is then that they all spring in to action.

Rossi lowers his newspaper, revealing a hockey mask saturated with blood (ketchup), and Reid leaps out from behind the tree, a goblin of some sort. Hotch rolls out from under the park bench, looking the least supernatural, just wearing a balaclava and wielding a plastic machete (also covered in ketchup) and Garcia stands, surveying the scene with undisguised disdain, wearing a black wig and devil horns. At the same time, JJ and Emily jump out from their spot behind the bush, JJ's mask that of a werewolf and Emily's the typical screamer disguise that covers not just her face, but her entire head. But it's really Morgan who startles the group, rushing out from his place in the ditch, wearing a Michael Jackson mask and screaming "I'm back! I'm back! MWA HA HA HA!" over and over again.

The poor kids scream in horror at the team of mismatched monsters, and run away shaking with fear. It's a sight that causes a little pang of guilt to poke Emily in the stomach, but it's quickly overpowered by a laugh that rapidly spreads to the rest of the group. Their battle cries die in their throats as wild laughter sends them to the ground, gasping for air. Emily feels more alive and happy and good than she's felt in a long time, and she doesn't want the moment to end.

"Round two?" she asks, as the team straightens up.

She is cut short by a loud yell of warning and a flash of lights as two police officers burst onto the scene.

"You damn kids! Stay where you are!" the first one yells, as the second shines the unsteady flashlight into Emily's eyes.

She finds it ironic that she herself is a cop, she is interacting with a group of cops and she is running from two cops who rank lower than her on the federal ladder. She is being chased, and she knows she will be caught and charged for being a public nuisance along with her six partners in crime, but she cannot bring herself to feel sad or ashamed for her actions. She feels happy and full of childish recklessness that she hasn't felt in years and as she turns to face Morgan, who has long since discarded his rubber mask, she smiles at him, knowing he feels the same way.

"In here, back here!" he yelps, pushing her behind a picket fence as the two cops run in the opposite direction.

"Happy Halloween" she laughs, ducking her head.

The End


End file.
